Ireland

"Wake up, we're here," nudged my husband, Bill, jolting me out of a peaceful slumber. I peeked out the tiny window, at first not realizing I was in an Aer Lingus jet high above the Atlantic. There, in the black expanse below, twinkled the island I'd been longing to see. "A land of leprechauns, legends, and castles," I excitedly told Sophie and Grace, my 7- and 10-year-old daughters. They call it Erin in the old language. We know it as Ireland. After landing in Dublin, the five of us, including Bill's mother, Mary, began our three-week adventure in a silver Volkswagen, just as the sun was beginning to rise.

Over time The Magic of Ireland dancers have adopted a mantra: "Give the people what they want. " And what people want is authenticity, said Peter Jacobs, executive producer of The Magic of Ireland, a touring dance company that specializes in traditional Irish dance. The real thing is what keeps Irish dance popular with audiences worldwide, he said. And that's what The Magic of Ireland - a corps of eight dancers - intends to bring to a show Saturday at The Maryland Theatre in downtown Hagerstown.

FREDERICK, Md. -- The idea for "Portraits of Ireland" surfaced four years ago, when Maureen Gately had her broken leg propped near a photo book on a coffee table. "People asked me how I was going to go about combining photos with dance," Gately said in a recent interview with The Herald-Mail. But it seems she has made it work. Artistic director of the Teelin Irish Dance Company, Gately --Â long healed from her broken leg --Â said her dancers are ready to perform their latest version of "Portraits of Ireland" Saturday at the Weinberg Center for the Arts.

In filming Ireland three years ago, Sandy Mortimer wanted to connect people today with the people of Ireland's past. The island in the North Atlantic is isolated so nothing gets diluted, Mortimer says. "Everything is still there of the history and culture for thousands of years," she says. A glimpse into that history can be seen during Mortimer's "Ireland: Celtic Myths & Splendors," the first in a series of six travelogues being presented by Kiwanis Club of Hagerstown.

katec@herald-mail.com Tony Kenny is looking forward to coming back to Hagerstown and The Maryland Theatre. "It's a beautiful little theater," he said in a recent telephone interview from New York. Kenny and his troupe will be in town to present "Christmas Time in Ireland," bringing a taste of the Emerald Isle's December holidays to Western Maryland. There will be music and dance, comedy and Christmas - all with an Irish flavor. The 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 30, visit is a stop on a 29-city U.S. tour.

katec@herald-mail.com The annual St. Patrick's Day Festival in Dublin, Ireland, will begin Thursday, March 11, and last through Wednesday, March 17, begorra! Although St. Patrick's Day is said to be the one national holiday celebrated in more countries around the world than any other, surprisingly, the Dublin event began less than 10 years ago. It has a parade, music, street theater, fireworks, visual arts and a treasure hunt for the Irish and those who feel Irish every year about this time.

Name: Laura Treacy Bentley City in which you reside : I live in Huntington, W.Va., but I divide my time between the beautiful mountains of West Virginia and McHenry, Md., in Garrett County. Day job: I'm the book editor for WV Living magazine. I conduct writing workshops and will be teaching creative writing at the West Virginia Governor's School for the Arts in Davis & Elkins College this summer. I'm hard at work on a new poetry collection and another novel, so I'm burning the midnight oil these days.

o Read more Harry Nogle columns at washingtoncountyliving.com Lohmans tour Ireland Rodger and Shelva Lohman of Sharpsburg visited Ireland with Baer Express Tours from June 21 to 30. During the tour, the Lohmans visited Dublin, Waterford, Killarney, Limerick, Polarney Stone, Ring of Kerry, Galway, Tullamore and Kingscourt. When the Lohmans returned to Sharpsburg, Shelva's children surprised her with a surprise 70th birthday picnic. Cemetery board to meet The Fairview Cemetery Board will meet Tuesday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Keedysville.

kevinc@herald-mail.com Most days, Bryan Carr has happy feet. Having arrived in America just a few hours ago, however, he's got himself a tired body. Even his brogue comes across a bit wilted on the telephone. No wonder, considering he spent more than six hours on a plane from Ireland to New York. Still, it's good to be stateside, says the producer of "The Spirit of Ireland. " Audiences, he says, always display a tremendous amount of goodwill to the dancers. "You always find that people tend to come up to you or come to the show because they feel an attachment to Ireland," he says.

Name: Laura Treacy Bentley City in which you reside : I live in Huntington, W.Va., but I divide my time between the beautiful mountains of West Virginia and McHenry, Md., in Garrett County. Day job: I'm the book editor for WV Living magazine. I conduct writing workshops and will be teaching creative writing at the West Virginia Governor's School for the Arts in Davis & Elkins College this summer. I'm hard at work on a new poetry collection and another novel, so I'm burning the midnight oil these days.

The sounds of Ireland will greet audience members this weekend during the Rescue Hose Co.'s 77th Hobo Minstrels show. A 75-member chorus has been rehearsing melodies for this year's theme, “When Irish Eyes are Smiling.” The all-volunteer cast will present two-hour performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Greencastle-Antrim High School auditorium. Organizers with the Rescue Hose Co. believe theirs is the oldest minstrel group in the nation.

o Read more Harry Nogle columns at washingtoncountyliving.com Lohmans tour Ireland Rodger and Shelva Lohman of Sharpsburg visited Ireland with Baer Express Tours from June 21 to 30. During the tour, the Lohmans visited Dublin, Waterford, Killarney, Limerick, Polarney Stone, Ring of Kerry, Galway, Tullamore and Kingscourt. When the Lohmans returned to Sharpsburg, Shelva's children surprised her with a surprise 70th birthday picnic. Cemetery board to meet The Fairview Cemetery Board will meet Tuesday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Keedysville.

FREDERICK, Md. -- The idea for "Portraits of Ireland" surfaced four years ago, when Maureen Gately had her broken leg propped near a photo book on a coffee table. "People asked me how I was going to go about combining photos with dance," Gately said in a recent interview with The Herald-Mail. But it seems she has made it work. Artistic director of the Teelin Irish Dance Company, Gately --Â long healed from her broken leg --Â said her dancers are ready to perform their latest version of "Portraits of Ireland" Saturday at the Weinberg Center for the Arts.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- The Jefferson County Photography Club, formed just last October, is in the midst of its first public exhibit. The works of three club members --Â Frank Robbins, Lisa Linn Arroniz and Isabel Kolpack -- are on display through Sunday, Feb. 15, in the Jean Heiler Art Gallery at the Old Opera House at 204 N. George St. The average club member is a novice with a good eye and who wants to get better, said Robbins, club...

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -Tri-State-area residents can get a taste of an Irish Christmas without a six-hour flight and delays at the airport. Tony Kenny, a popular performer in Ireland, is bringing a taste of Irish Christmas to the Tri-State area when his Christmas Time in Ireland tour visits The Capitol Theatre this Friday. The show will feature inspirational, Christmas, and Irish songs, including "Christmas in Killarney," "Come Home to Ireland for Christmas," and "Mrs. Fogarty's Christmas Cake," Kenny said during a recent phone interview.

"Wake up, we're here," nudged my husband, Bill, jolting me out of a peaceful slumber. I peeked out the tiny window, at first not realizing I was in an Aer Lingus jet high above the Atlantic. There, in the black expanse below, twinkled the island I'd been longing to see. "A land of leprechauns, legends, and castles," I excitedly told Sophie and Grace, my 7- and 10-year-old daughters. They call it Erin in the old language. We know it as Ireland. After landing in Dublin, the five of us, including Bill's mother, Mary, began our three-week adventure in a silver Volkswagen, just as the sun was beginning to rise.

A line in "Danny Boy" -"But come ye back when summer's in the meadow" - can send my heart flying to Ireland as if it were an Aer Lingus jumbo jet. I went to Ireland three summers ago. Though I never had set foot on the "Old Sod" before, I experienced a distinct sense of homecoming. Yes, some of my ancestors are Irish. My maternal grandmother, then a 17-year-old Margaret Teehan, left County Kerry about 100 years ago. That might be part of what made me feel so connected, but it was the Ireland I experienced myself that made me so comfortable.

Over time The Magic of Ireland dancers have adopted a mantra: "Give the people what they want. " And what people want is authenticity, said Peter Jacobs, executive producer of The Magic of Ireland, a touring dance company that specializes in traditional Irish dance. The real thing is what keeps Irish dance popular with audiences worldwide, he said. And that's what The Magic of Ireland - a corps of eight dancers - intends to bring to a show Saturday at The Maryland Theatre in downtown Hagerstown.